Yesterday, On 27th August, A 25-year-old man, charged with impersonating former Patna High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Karol in 2022, sought bail from the Supreme Court. The accused allegedly deceived the Court’s Registrar General by pretending to be the Chief Justice and obtaining Amazon gift cards under false pretences.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court, On Tuesday, issued notice on a bail plea from a 25-year-old man accused of impersonating the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court in 2022.
The individual allegedly posed as then Chief Justice Sanjay Karol (now a Supreme Court judge) to deceive the Registrar General of the Patna High Court into purchasing 15 Amazon gift cards worth Rs.10,000 each.
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A Division Bench comprising Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih issued notice on the bail application.
The Court ordered,
“Issue notice, returnable on 30th September, 2024. Liberty is granted to serve the Standing Counsel for the first respondent-State, in addition,”
The incident occurred in July 2022 when the Registrar General of the Patna High Court received a WhatsApp message from a number displaying the profile picture of Justice Sanjay Karol. The message requested that he arrange 15 Amazon gift cards.
The sender instructed the Registrar General to send the gift cards through links provided via a different mobile number. Believing the request to be from the Chief Justice, the Registrar General purchased the gift cards and sent them to the sender.
The Registrar General reportedly paid approximately Rs.1,50,000 from his salary account to purchase the cards.
However, he later realized that the number he had sent the gift cards to was not associated with Justice Karol. In an attempt to recover the loss, he tried redeeming the cards himself but was only able to retrieve 5 out of the 15 gift cards.
An FIR was subsequently filed under Sections 379 (theft), 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, along with Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
A man named Sudhakar Marella, who allegedly purchased the gift cards later, identified Md. Yusuf Ahmed (the current bail applicant) as the person who sold him the cards in his confessional statement.
Both the Sessions Court and the High Court denied bail to Ahmed. Seeking relief, he has now approached the Supreme Court.
Before the Supreme Court, Ahmed argued that he was not named in the original FIR and that his name only emerged following the confession of co-accused Marella. Ahmed contended that there is no direct evidence linking him to the crime.
He further stated that he has been in custody since February 1, 2023, and is missing out on important years for his career due to the denial of bail.
Advocates Raja Choudhary, Sanyam Jain, Vikas Pal, Kumar Saurabh, Rajesh Singh Chauhan, and Gumrmehar Vaan Singh represented the appellant/bail applicant.
Read Order: [Md. Yusuf Ahmed v. State of Bihar and Another].